a friend of mine in the tourism industry received a message from a business associate in the u.s. who (previously) intended to expand his operations in turkey. now he is back pedaling.
reason one: the virtual putsch by internet. we may love, like, be very proud of, many
of us might even prefer to live under a military regime instead of islamists but the
world according to the normal man generally abhors a place and people who fail in
democracy. within the last week, even the usually pro-turkey cnn made us the
stock of laughing matter, commenting extensively on the army's readiness to delve
into politics. we learnt another patriotic lesson on how to slide back into the last
century in ten lines online...
reason two: the may 1 scandal in istanbul. all tour agencies i know are up to their ears in letters
asking whether turkey is safe to visit. loss of revenues adds up the cost of loss of
face... all because one man decided that protecting the virginity of a town square is
good "public administration"; while he condemned the public to suffer, to be beaten,
tormented, humiliated, arrested, gassed and treated as criminals. the governor of
istanbul is incompetent for the job if only because he still confuses "state authority"
with "public order". that is a giant step backward to th 19th century.
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the latest declaration from the general staf was not a desired thing to be seen again in turkey. we need to talk about this issue, try to understand why it was made and if it was really necessary etc.
but tourism should be less of our worries. turkey has been trying to be one of the major touristic resorts for a very long time, but couldnt managed to create a real image yet. whatever happens it is just an excuse to delete the touristic bookings, but who remembers all those bombings in egypt which were more deadlier for the tourists than the ones in turkey? egypt draws far more tourists than turkey, and as far as i know she is not a real democracy either. political agenda is only an excuse for the tourism business in turkey. people in this business should stop whining and try to find creative ways to attract tourists.
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